28 million medical appointments are not honored each year in France. To lower this number, the senators would like to introduce a financial penalty for stunned patients.
One time out of ten, doctors have their patient pose a rabbit. In total, according to the council of the order of doctors, 28 million appointments are not honored each year in France, recalls France 3. This is explained both by the ease of making medical appointments in line and by the increasingly long delays which sometimes require waiting more than a year to see your doctor, for example if it is an ophthalmologist or a dermatologist. A deadline that is easy to forget. “I think there is also the stress of the patient who is afraid of not finding a doctor, who, suddenly, multiplies his research, and multiplies his appointments, which disrupts the care” adds Anne-Marie Cayla -Ladeveze, general practitioner and president of the CSMF union of Loire Atlantique.
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“This will penalize the most fragile”
The senators therefore have the idea of introducing a “Rabbit” tax for stunned patients. This would reduce the amount of reimbursement for the next appointment. Some members of the profession are concerned about the repercussions of such a measure, which could prove to be counterproductive. “It will cost the patient who will not honor his appointment, but on the other hand it will not give us back medical time”, estimates Dr Fabienne Yvon, representative of one of the main unions in Loire-Atlantique. Above all, “this will penalize the most fragile, the most precarious because those who cancel their appointment are those who have something else to think about, they are often people in precariousness or allophone people (whose language mother tongue is a foreign language, Editor’s note.)”, she insists.
Measures are already in place, such as appointment reminders by SMS, or warning displays in waiting rooms. Doctors can also refuse patients after three appointments not honored.